LEGACY

THE STAR SHINES ON

Last Updated
Monday, May 24, 2010 9:56 AM

By dancing her way into our hearts, Eleanor Powell changed the
musical film industry, making the stakes so high that everything had to be
bigger and better in order to impress audiences. Of course, after Powell, no
dancing was quite as rememberable as that of the "sensation of the 1940s," and
musical films became less profitable, eventually causing them to have a virtually
nonexistent production from the late 1960s onward.

However, her films continued to be a favorite, and has been
featured in every single edition of That's Entertainment!, creating
a new generation of audiences to go under the Powell spell. To this day, her
dances are taught in many tap classes to give students not only an appreciation
for the classics, but an idea of just how much she has influenced dancing in
the past 70 years.

Aside from dancing, Eleanor Powell was very involved in religion.
From 1953 to 1955, she hosted a children's show called The Faith of Our
Children, which was a nondenominational Sunday morning TV program that
was the equivalent to today's religious children's shows. The program lasted
three seasons and went on to win two Emmys, letting Powell end her film career
on a high note.

After retiring, she was ordained a minister and continued her
religious journey until her death, upon which she had her ashes placed in a
bronze replica of the Bible, which can be found in
the
Hollywood
Forever Cemetery.